A list of the most influential books written by women – how many have you read? Any favourites missing and have they all earned their place…?
Here’s The top 20 most influential book written by a woman as voted by the public on twitter (must admit I missed that campaign) with To Kill a Mockingbird at number one. It was organised by the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, the UK’s only annual book award for fiction written by a woman (and once called The Orange Prize).
How many have you read? And is your favourite here?
I’ve read 18 and by chance bought Doddie Smith’s I Capture the Castle today because I’ve heard so many great things about it. The other one I haven’t read is Middlemarch. George Elliot has kind of passed me by, although I have read and enjoyed Silas Marner.
The one that had the biggest impact on me? Probably The Handmaid’s Tale.
The one I like best – Little Women but The Golden Notebook is a close contender – I’ve never read any of Doris Lessing I didn’t like….
Best of the list (and probably best on any list) is Beloved by Toni Morrison in my opinion.
And the one I like least? Wuthering Heights. Heathcliffe is a man with serious mental health issues..
Who should be on this list and isn’t?
Jeanette Winterson for Oranges are Not the Only Fruit,
Edna O’Brien (but it would be hard to choose just one of her novels)
Kate Atkinson.
What about you? Got any strong likes or dislikes?
1) To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
2) The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
3) Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4) Harry Potter – J. K Rowling
5) Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
6) Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
7) Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
8) Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
9) The Secret History – Donna Tartt
10) I Capture the Castle – Dodie Smith
11) The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
12) Beloved – Toni Morrison
13) Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
14) We Need To Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver
15) The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
16) Middlemarch – George Eliot
17) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
18) The Golden Notebook – Doris Lessing
19) The Colour Purple – Alice Walker
20) The Women’s Room – Marilyn French
photo credit: The Bees Knees Daily via photopin cc
9 comments on “A list of the most influential books written by women – how many have you read? Any favourites missing and have they all earned their place…?”
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I’ve read 15 and embarrassed I haven’t read the others, although I did try Lessing and could never get into her work.
And do you feel vaguely guilty because you aren’t into Lessing? Feel that way about a lot of writers and books (but not Wuthering Heights!) and George Elliot is probably just pure laziness on my part because I am sure I would get on with her. We shouldn’t beat ourselves up – not every author is for everyone – and hey! 15 out of 20 isn’t anything to be embarrassed about!
Not particularly keen on Doris Lessing myself – not sure why. Don’t care for Wuthering Heights either.
And gave up on The time traveller’s wife – just too unlikely.
I don’t think there’s any wrong with The Time Traveller’s Wife that a good editor couldn’t fix – just too long. Whole middle section that’s pretty repetitive. Or do I want things to be be too zappy…?
Here’s one that is not too long – Bonjour Tristesse by Francois Sagan (they kept the French title in translation). Bit of a period piece now but then some of these are even more so. And how about ditching Little Women in favour of one of Kathy Acker’s books… maybe Blood and Guts in High School (1984)?
I don’t know either of these books – thank you so much for the recommendations. The list is a bit dated, isn’t it? A bit nostalgic…
I prefer Persuasion to Pride and Prejudice; I find Maya Angelou quite egotistical: my all time favourite novel is Possession; I really like Jojo Mayes – but maybe she’s not deep. No Virginia Woolf? I like some of the later Louisa May Alcott series e.g Good Wives; and what about Anne of Green Gables, if we’re going with children’s books? I found the Women’s Room quite dreary – definitely too long; I did read the Golden Notebook as a teenager, but not sure I’d have the patience for it now – but I do love some of Lessing’s other novels like The Summer Before the Dark. One of my favourite authors is Ursula K. Le Guin – I found her novels mind-stretching – my 17 year old son is just beginning the Dispossessed – a novel I re-read at least once a decade – and I think influenced my adult choice to live in Community. And how about some Crime Fiction – the alphabet series with Kinsey Millhone as the detective? And I love Isabelle Allende, and Maxine Hong Kingston, who opened my eyes to other cultures. I could go on…. interesting topic…R
You are right!! How could I have missed it – no Virginia Woolf!!!
If this is about works that influenced readers and writers then she has to be up there…and women writers have excelled in both the magic realism and fantasy genres.
And as for gritty who-dun-its. Well, that’s almost a feminist genre all by itself from Agatha Christie and P.D. James to Patricia Highsmith and Val McDermid:and many, many more.
And what does influence really mean?
Yes, I love Jane Austin but probably the women who have influenced me have been closer to home…more integral to whom I am…a Kate Bush song…? An Eda O’Brien sentence, a Maeve Binchey sensibility..;and then something left field like a lyric from a 12th century pastoral by anon (who must have been a woman, so hard-working, so self-effacing…)
All are wonderful choices and great books…